"Mrs. Ford as was, then--Simmons now, ain't it?"
He said this with a furtive leer that Simmons neither liked nor
understood.
"No," said Simmons, "she ain't in now."
"You ain't her 'usband, are ye?"
"Yus."
The man took his pipe from his mouth, and grinned silently and long.
"Blimy," he said at length, "you look the sort o' bloke she'd
like,"--and with that he grinned again. Then, seeing that Simmons made
ready to shut the door, he put a foot on the sill and a hand against the
panel. "Don't be in a 'urry, matey," he said, "I come 'ere t'ave a
little talk with you, man to man, d'ye see?" And he frowned fiercely.
Tommy Simmons felt uncomfortable, but the door would not shut, so he
parleyed. "Wotjer want?" he asked. "I dunno you."
"Then, if you'll excuse the liberty, I'll interdooce meself, in a manner
of speaking." He touched his cap with a bob of mock humility. "I'm Bob
Ford," he said, "come back out o' kingdom-come, so to say. Me as went
down with the _Mooltan_--safe dead five year gone. I come to see my
wife."
During this speech Thomas Simmons's jaw was dropping lower and lower. At
the end of it he poked his fingers up through his hair, looked down at
the mat, then up at the fanlight, then out into the street, then hard at
his visitor. But he found nothing to say.
"Come to see my wife," the man repeated. "So now we can talk it over--as
man to man."
Simmons slowly shut his mouth, and led the way upstairs mechanically,
his fingers still in his hair. A sense of the state of affairs sank
gradually into his brain, and the small devil woke again. Suppose this
man _was_ Ford? Suppose he _did_ claim his wife? Would it be a
knock-down blow? Would it hit him out?--or not? He thought of the
trousers, the tea-things, the mangling, the knives, the kettles, and the
windows; and he thought of them in the way of a backslider.
On the landing Ford clutched at his arm, and asked in a hoarse whisper:
"'Ow long 'fore she's back?"
"'Bout a hour, I expect," Simmons replied, having first of all repeated
the question in his own mind. And then he opened the parlor door.
"Ah," said Ford, looking about him, "you've bin pretty comf'table. Them
chairs an' things"--jerking his pipe toward them--"was hers--mine that
is to say, speaking straight, and man to man." He sat down, puffing
meditatively at his pipe, and presently: "Well," he continued, "'ere I
am agin, ol' Bob Ford dead an' done for--gawn down in the _Mooltan_.
On'y I _ain't_ done for, see?"--and he pointed the stem of his pipe at
Simmons's waistcoat,--"I ain't done for, 'cause why? Cons'kence o' bein'
picked up by a ol' German sailin'-'utch an' took to 'Frisco 'fore the
mast. I've 'ad a few years o' knockin' about since then, an'
now"--looking hard at Simmons--"I've come back to see my wife."
"She--she don't like smoke in 'ere," said Simmons, as it were at random.
"No, I bet she don't," Ford answered, taking his pipe from his mouth,
and holding it low in his hand. "I know 'Anner. 'Ow d'you find 'er? Do
she make ye clean the winders?"
"Well," Simmons admitted uneasily, "I--I do 'elp 'er sometimes, o'
course."
"Ah! An' the knives too, I bet, an' the bloomin' kittles. I know.
Wy"--he rose and bent to look behind Simmons's head--"s'elp me, I
b'lieve she cuts yer 'air! Well, I'm damned! Jes' wot she would do,
too."
He inspected the blushing Simmons from divers points of vantage. Then he
lifted a leg of the trousers hanging behind the door. "I'd bet a
trifle," he said, "she made these 'ere trucks. Nobody else 'ud do 'em
like that. Damme--they're wuss'n wot you're got on."
The small devil began to have the argument all its own way. If this man
took his wife back perhaps he'd have to wear those trousers.
"Ah!" Ford pursued, "she ain't got no milder. An' my davy, wot a jore!"
Simmons began to feel that this was no longer his business. Plainly,
'Anner was this other man's wife, and he was bound in honor to
acknowledge the fact. The small devil put it to him as a matter of duty.
"Well," said Ford suddenly, "time's short an' this ain't business. I
won't be 'ard on you, matey. I ought prop'ly to stand on my rights, but
seein' as you're a well-meanin' young man, so to speak, an' all settled
an' a-livin' 'ere quiet an' matrimonual, I'll"--this with a burst of
generosity--"damme, yus, I'll compound the felony, an' take me 'ook.
Come, I'll name a figure, as man to man, fust an' last, no less an' no
more. Five pound does it."
Simmons hadn't five pounds--he hadn't even five pence--and he said so.
"An' I wouldn't think for to come between a man an' 'is wife," he added,
"not on no account. It may be rough on me, but it 's a dooty. _I'll_
'ook it."
"No," said Ford hastily, clutching Simmons by the arm, "don't do that.
I'll make it a bit cheaper. Say three quid--come, that's reasonable,
ain't it? Three quid ain't much compensation for me goin' away
forever--where the stormy winds do blow, so to say--an' never as much as
seein' me own wife agin for better nor wuss. Between man an' man
now--three quid; an' I'll shunt. That's fair, ain't it?"
"Of course it's fair," Simmons replied effusively. "It's more'n fair:
it's noble--downright noble, _I_ call it. But I ain't goin' to take a
mean advantage o' your good-'artedness, Mr. Ford. She's your wife, an' I
oughtn't to 'a' come between you. I apologize. You stop an' 'ave yer
proper rights. It's me as ought to shunt, an' I will." And he made a
step toward the door.
"'Old on," quoth Ford, and got between Simmons and the door; "don't do
things rash. Look wot a loss it'll be to you with no 'ome to go to, an'
nobody to look after ye, an' all that. It'll be dreadful. Say a
couple--there, we won't quarrel, jest a single quid, between man an'
man, an' I'll stand a pot out o' the money. You can easy raise a
quid--the clock 'ud pretty nigh do it. A quid does it; an' I'll--"
There was a loud double-knock at the front door. In the East End a
double-knock is always for the upstairs lodgers.
"Oo's that?" asked Bob Ford apprehensively.
"I'll see," said Thomas Simmons in reply, and he made a rush for the
staircase.
Bob Ford heard him open the front door. Then he went to the window, and,
just below him, he saw the crown of a bonnet. It vanished, and borne to
him from within the door there fell upon his ear the sound of a
well-remembered female voice.
"Where ye goin' now with no 'at?" asked the voice sharply.
"Awright, 'Anner--there's--there's somebody upstairs to see you,"
Simmons answered. And, as Bob Ford could see, a man went scuttling down
the street in the gathering dusk. And behold, it was Thomas Simmons.
Ford reached the landing in three strides. His wife was still at the
front door, staring after Simmons. He flung into the back room, threw
open the window, dropped from the wash-house roof into the back-yard,
scrambled desperately over the fence, and disappeared into the gloom. He
was seen by no living soul. And that is why Simmons's base
desertion--under his wife's very eyes, too--is still an astonishment to
the neighbors.